You're Home
by bullwolf238
Summary: Sometimes you have to loose the things you have to gain the things you want most.DOM CENTRIC
1. Into the Dark

**You're Home**

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Out of the dark**

The street lights offered no protection from their burn out globes as alpha squad moved silently through the dead streets that were once lined with life and beauty. Luckily the krill had not come out of their holes yet as the sun was near rising into the sky as it had done for centuries and, Dom hoped; for centuries more.

Light soon created a welcome pathway as the sun finally rose.

"So I guess 'Darkness, be my Friend' is no longer anyone's favourite book, eh?" the black haired Latino asked with a smile. The silence was beginning to get annoying and Dom wanted to talk. To someone, anyone, hell even Baird would do.

Marcus looked over his shoulder to his childhood friend with a sigh. "Can't you just be quiet for ten minutes? It's a wonder the krill didn't come looking for us with the amount of noise you were making back there." He waved his hand to point back in the general direction they had come in.

Baird and Cole exchanged a look. "Here we go again." These fights had been getting to be a regular thing on their missions (if you could call them that, they were mostly just: walk here, and make sure the locusts don't kill that guy there. Not very interesting.) In fact they had already had a fight this mission about noise.

* * *

_///flashback about 2 hours///_

"Hhmm hum hum hum de hum hum hum"

"DOM WILL YOU SHUT UP" the anger was evident on Marcus' face. He was sick of listening to Dom hum 'Joy to the World' on repeat for the last ten minutes. Honestly the song doesn't go that long.

"What? I'm just trying to lighten the mood. You guys look real down... around now or so" he stumbled, a little scared of the expression on Marcus' face. He took a step back and held his hands out in defence.

_///end of flashback///_

* * *

"It was just a question, a joke. No need to get all shitty about it Marcus."

"First I have to listen to you hum 'Joy to the World' and now ask stupid questions and jokes? What is the world coming to?" His hands flew to the skies.

"You shoulda been a girl Marcus, You ask like you got PMS or something all the fuckin' time. What's with you?"

"Well at least I'm man enough to at least try to protect the people I love" it was barely a whisper but Dom heard it loud and clear.

"WHATS THAT SUPOSED TO MEAN?"

"You heard me. I at least tried to save my dad. You didn't do anything but sit there and cry when they told us that your house was one of the first hit in emergence day." His sour tone was mocking Dom and it hurt. A lot.

"Fine then. You obviously don't want me here, I won't be here! Fuck you, I QUIT!"

And with that, Dom turned around and stormed off in the direction they had just come from.

Marcus stood there practically snarling at his ex-childhood friends back as he disappeared around the corner.

"You better run fucker, I hope I never have to see your sorry face again! ASSHOLE!"

Baird and Cole once again just looked at each other and sighed "They're gunna regret this fight man"

"Yeah I know Cole. You don't know what you got til it's gone right?" The larger man just nodded and turned to follow Marcus down the street.

* * *

_///Over Dom's shoulder///_

"Bastard can go fuck himself for all I care. I did try to help her, they told me she was dead and I just had to keep going out on missions with that prick" he spat at the ground.

"They stopped me from going to find her; I got someone to help me find her. I will see her again, she's not dead. My wife is not dead."

That's when something caught his eye.

A once bright yellow, teddy bear lying in a puddle. Now a soppy, tattered, stuffed toy that someone left behind. He walked over to it and knelt down to pick it up. He looked at it and remembered something.

"Just like the one I bought for Maria." He was tempted to put it back down in the puddle it came from but instead smiled at the bear, shoved it into his back pocket and he stood up.

"She loved that bear and when I find her I'll give this one to her to replace the one she lost. For old times sake"

With his head facing the wrong way, he never noticed the creature desend on him. All he knew was a tattered, teddy bear and then the world turning from full colour to black.

"Stupid Humans" the drone laughed and walked away from the black haired Latino's unmoving body.


	2. Visions of Heaven

You're Home

Chapter 2 – Visions of Heaven

Two sets of young, dark brown eyes, hidden inside a nameless building saw a large, Latino man fall to the curb by the unforgiving hand of a drone.

"We should help," the first voice, a boy of about 14 with short, dirty black hair and surprisingly large for his age at 6ft.

"No," the second voice, a girl of the same age, but considerably shorter than the boy and with shoulder length, black hair. "COGS never travel alone. Someone will come to get him and it doesn't need to be us. Besides what the hell have they done for us? Nothing. So we don't need to do anything for them."

The boy took his eyes off the fallen COG and turned to the girl whose eyes had long left the soldier.

"Mum said our father was a COG soldier. Don't we owe it to him to help this one, sis?"

"And where was he when we needed him? Where is he now?" the girl asked her twin brother bitterly. "We owe him nothing."

The boy sighed turning back to look out the tiny window at the man lying motionless on the curb. Then an idea popped into his head.

"What about your bear?" a grin spread over his face. "The one mum said our father gave to her before she was pregnant with us. It's down there with that soldier. You want it back don't you?"

The girl angrily sighed in defeat, shook her head and started walking out to the street.

'Broc – 1, Ally – none' the boy thought to himself as he followed his sister.

* * *

_///On the Street///_

"He looks dead."

"Come on Ally, the garage isn't that far away. We could drag him there and ol' Doc'll help 'im get better," a bright smile played across his face, the ever optimistic boy he was.

His sister clearly didn't want to bring a COG the five blocks to their "home", but gave in when she saw his puppy dog eyes. Not many had ever been able to resist her brother's famous puppy dog eyes and she was not one of them.

"Fine. But once we get him there, I want nothing to do with him."

"Fine by me," Broc said cheerfully.

* * *

_Garage_

The "garage", as it was called by its inhibiters, was a large enclosed space that once used to be an aircraft hangar. Nowadays it was called home by 50 or so Stranded. Huts of all shapes and sizes lined its walls and children played ball in the centre. A peaceful place that was always overlooked by the locust and Coalition of the Ordered Government alike.

The two siblings stepped through the hangar doors, dragging the inactive body behind them. They were met by multiple faces staring at the body they had collected from their travels outside.

"Broc, Ally, what have you got there?" an old and gritty voice called as the body it was attached to stepped forward, curiously.

"A COG," Ally stated dropping the leg she was holding on to.

"He needs your help Doc, a Drone knocked him out."

"He needs a bullet is what," mumbled Ally walking away. Broc watched her leave then turned back to look at Doc.

"We found 'im on the side of the street not too far from 'ere. Figured you might be able to help 'im."

"We don't help COGs, Broc. You know that," Doc eyed the soldier on the floor.

"Well I think we should. There's somethin' about this one that just feels wrong about leaven' him to die."

The doctor eyed Broc suspiciously and then sighed.

"Fine, but you tell your mother the moment she gets back with the others. I have a feeling she may want to see this."

Broc smiled 'Broc – 2, Ally - still none. I'm winning this one today'.


	3. Little Yellow Bear

You're Home

Chapter 3 – Little Yellow Bear

Ally pushed open the flap that led to the midsized hut that her, her brother and her mother all shared and made her way to the corner that was hers.

She flopped down on her bed and glared at the faded yellow bear in her hands.

"If it wasn't for you, he'd still be on the street where every pig like him deserves to be. But you mean so much to my mum."

The bear's black eyes stared out into nothingness as Ally hugged it close to her.

_///Doc'__s Hut///_

Broc sat on a stool next to the only object in the room; a steel spring bed with a thin old mattress covering it. The COG's body had been dumped upon it only an hour before.

"You're lucky you had that bear on you, big guy. Otherwise you wouldn't a been here right now. 'Cause my sis, she hates your kind, calls you pigs like most of us stranded do." He swayed slightly as if he was going to get up but chose to stay seated.

The Doc walked in carrying a small paper notepad and a very chewed pencil. He scratched the side of his face and said "He's lucky. Such a blow like that on most other people would have put them out permanently. But this pig's gunna be alright, he'll wake up sooner rather than later and when he does I want you to make him stay here. I've got some questions for him."

"OK Doc. You wanna know what's goin' on out there doncha?"Broc asked with a tilt of his head and a smile.

"Hn, Yeah," and with those words Old Doc left the hut.

Broc turned back to the soldier. There was something about him that just made it feel right to bring him here and keep him from the untimely death he would have met on the street. He thought about what the Doc had said 'I've got some questions for him' and thought "Well, I've got some questions of my own."

_///2 __hour's__ later///_

A shift in position, a small movement, that's all it took to alert Broc to the wakening state of the COG before him. He got up off the stool and stepped to the bedside.

"Yo, you awake bud?" he asked poking the guy in the arm.

The soldier grunted and opened his eyes slightly adjusting to the overhead light. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and turned to look at the oversized boy beside him.

"How the hell did I get here?" he asked looking around the barren room.

"Drone smacked you upside the head an' you fell down like a tonne a bricks. Lucky me an' my sis was there to drag you 'ere, 'cause you woulda been dead meat on the street out there," Broc's smile grew as he saw remembrance in the soldiers face.

"Oh, right. Well, uh, thanks for savin' my ass out there." He said lowering himself back onto the mattress.

"Believe me if you hadn't picked up that teddy bear, we woulda left you there. So thank the bear, 'cause my sis hates you COGs."

"Well I wouldn't worry about that anymore. I left my team just before that Drone hit me."

"What you do that for?" Broc pulled the stool closer and sat back down.

"I got into a fight with my best... my commanding officer about a personal issue. I'm not going to take that crap from him when he knows he's wrong," he shrugged.

Broc shifted on the stool and smiled "Well, that topic is slightly depressing. Anyway, what's your name, big guy? Seeing as we can't just call you that all the time."

"Uh, it's Dom."

"Dom what?"

"Dominic Santiago. Ex-private Dom Santiago," He said with a short lived pride. "And you?"

"Broc... something or other. I can't remember my last name. I've never had to use it," he said with a shrug and his ever present smile.

"You don't know your last name? But you've got one right?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do. Ma and Ally, my sis, know it. I just can't be stuffed trying to remember something I don't need."

"When the war's over you'll need it."

"And you'll be in prison for desertion. Or maybe killed for it," Broc frowned. "It may sound strange but I don't look forward to the end of the war. Here in this hanger, everything's great. The Locust and COGs don't ever come here. It's safe."

"Well I gotta leave," he started getting up from the bed. "Now that I'm AWOL I might as well try to find my wife, myself."

"Hey maybe I can help you. Maybe I know her. Tell me about her."

"Alright," he paused thinking of the right things to say. "She's got bright brown eyes that are always shining when she laughs. Long, black hair that used to go to her waist but I don't know if it's like that anymore. Light tan skin, like yours but a bit lighter. And she's got a laugh and a smile that you'd never forget."

Broc smiled as he watched Dom go into something like a trance as he described his wife.

"You know that sounds a lot like my Ma. But that's probably just my opinion. I don't know anyone else like that," he looked away in thought. "Hey, you should meet her when she gets back!"

"Hm, maybe," his smile fading at the fact that the boy couldn't help him.

The flap to the hut flipped open and revealed Doc reading from his notebook and tapping his forehead with his pencil. He looked up and was slightly startled to see the soldier awake.

"My, well, Good morning... you," he struggled to form a sentence and failed miserably. "So, you're awake? Good. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for the benefit of the people living in this garage... hanger... Whatever you want to call it."

Dom looked at the man as if he had grown another head and shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "O... K. Ask away."

"Oh, wonderful," the old man's face lit up like a light bulb. "So, obviously, Raam's dead, what happened next?"

"Uh, not a lot really. I think the queen's angry but she hasn't done anything yet so it's been pretty boring out there. This is a good thing, sort of. Everyone's on edge waiting for her to do something."

"Is that it?" Doc tried not to sound disappointed. He wanted to hear of great battles of life and death that lasted from dusk till dawn and left streets painted red.

Dom thought about it for a sec "Yep, that's it."

"Oh, well that's all I wanted to know," he sighed. "Um, Maria, Broc's mother, will be coming in soon to meet you. She's the one who will decide what we do with you."

"I'm not an object," Dom said sullenly.

"Be that as it may, she will decide whether we help you or not."

"Ok, when does she get back?"

"Some time tomorrow," Broc offered, reminding them of his presence in the room.

"Oh Fuck," he flopped back on to the mattress, jumping as it squeaked loudly from his weight. Doc and Broc chuckled at his discomfort.


End file.
